BULLETIN NO. 32. 
The number of woody plants that produce flowers in New England 
after the middle of October is not large. The most important of them 
is, of course, the native Witch Hazel ( Hamamelis virginiana) which is a 
true autumn bloomer, that is, it does not begin to flower until after the 
first of October. Its small clusters of flowers with their long pale yellow 
strap-shaped petals are now partly hidden by the leaves which are bright 
yellow and very conspicuous. As the leaves fall the flowers seem to 
cover the branches and form one of the most interesting features of the 
autumn flora of the northern United States. Occasionally a plant can 
be found in flower with leaves still retaining their summer color, and on 
such plants the beauty of the flowers is increased by the contrast be- 
tween the bright green leaves and the yellow flowers. There is another 
species of Witch Hazel in southern Missouri and Arkansas which blooms 
in early spring, and the two Japanese species and the species of eentral 
and western China are also spring bloomers. The Witch Hazel Group, 
containing besides Hamamelis, the Sweet Gum, Liquidambar and Foth- 
ergilla, is on the south side of Meadow Road at its junction with the 
Bussey Hill Road. Large specimens of Parrotia persica, a shrub or 
small tree of this family, can be seen on Hickory Path near Centre 
Street. This plant grows in the Arboretum into a broad round-headed 
shrub with erect stems and, as the flowers and fruits are not conspicuous, 
is chiefly valuable for the orange and scarlet tints assumed in autumn by 
its ample leaves. 
A plant still in flower is Lonicera Heckrottii. This is one of the climb- 
ing Honeysuckles and is of hybrid origin. It was described in Bulletin 
No. 29, issued on July 2nd last, when it had already been in flower two 
or three weeks. From the middle of June until the middle of October it 
has been covered with flowers. Although not fragrant, they are very 
beautiful ; the outer surface of the corolla is deep rose color and the 
inner surface is pale yellow, and as closed buds and open flowers appear 
together in the same cluster beautiful contrasts of color are produced. 
This vine flowers more constantly and more persistently than any other 
plant in the Arboretum, and it might well find a place in every New Eng- 
land garden in which beautiful flowers are valued. A few belated flow- 
ers are still opening on the climbing semi-evergreen, Hall’s Japanese 
Honeysuckle {Lonicera japonica Halliana ), and on the still more beauti- 
ful Chinese form of the same species, L. japonica chinensis, distin- 
guished by the red color of the young stems and leaves. Two eastern 
American species of climbing Honeysuckles, L. hirsuta and L. prolifera, 
are interesting at this time as they are covered with compact clusters of 
bright red fruits surrounded by the cups formed by the union of the two 
upper leaves. These climbing Honeysuckles are on the trellis at the 
north end of the Shrub Collection. The leaves of many of the climbing 
Honeysuckles are often disfigured by the attacks of an aphis and can only 
be kept in good condition by careful spraying early in the season and just 
as the leaves are unfolding. 
A few belated flowers are still to be found on the lovely Daphne cneo- 
rum of the mountains of central Europe. The prostrate stems of this 
little shrub are covered with light green leaves which persist during the 
winter and in early spring bear terminal compact clusters of delightfully 
